Resisting Everything but Temptation

This took me a lot longer than 30 days. I guess it would have gone faster if I had just answered the questions, instead of rambling on, but that would have been a lot less fun.

Day 01 - A show that never should have been canceled (Odyssey 5)
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching (Fringe)
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season) (White Collar)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever (Highlander)
Day 05 - A show you hate (none)
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show ("Methuselah's Gift")
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show ("For Evil's Sake")
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch (The Wire)
Day 09 - Best scene ever (The death of Wild Bill Hickok, Deadwood)
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving (True Blood)
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you (Witchblade)
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times ("Power Play," Angel)
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show (The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty)
Day 14 - Favorite male character (Duncan MacLeod)
Day 15 - Favorite female character (Amanda Darieux)
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show (Hustle)
Day 17 - Favorite mini series (Band of Brothers)
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence (Rome)
Day 19 - Best TV show cast (The Wire)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss (Marshall and Lionel, United States of Tara)
Day 21 - Favorite ship (Tie: Duncan/Methos and Sam/Dean)
Day 22 - Favorite series finale ("Paul Is Dead," Miracles)
Day 23 - Most annoying character (JD Dunne, The Magnificent Seven)
Day 24 - Best quote (Deathmatch between Al Swearengen and Malcolm Reynolds)
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new) (Ashes to Ashes)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale ("Devil's Trap," Supernatural)
Day 27 - Best pilot episode ("The Ferguson Syndrome," Miracles)
Day 28 - First TV show obsession (Star Trek: The Original Series)
Day 29 - Saddest character death (Xena, Xena: Warrior Princess)

For Days 29 and 30, I switched things up because "saddest character death" is too much of a bummer to end on. Also, if you don't count my entries for The Wire, very few characters of color ended up represented here, and that sucks. So how about:

Day 30 - Favorite character of color

It's frustrating that it's still so hard to find shows that give equal treatment to characters of color. Hispanic women, and women of color in general, are ridiculously underrepresented on the kind of genre shows I love, and the few there are don't often get to do much. On the bright side, I keep coming back to Jeremiah, which was far from perfect, and which slumped a bit in terms of developing characters of color in the second season, but which also stands out as being so much better than most of my shows in terms of diversity and the development of interesting female characters. That was almost ten years ago. Come on, genre TV. You can do better!

So, this is going to get long. They're in no particular order, until the end. :)

24

David Palmer
My president. ♥ I'm with Jack on this one.

Dalia Hassan (and Omar Hassan)
Such an amazing character. She really made the last season for me, particularly at the end. Who knew that 24, of all shows, would put the future of the world in the hands of three awesome women. I'll give a mention to her husband, too, for having the sexiest voice ever on TV.

Curtis Manning
I can't help it, I'm a sucker for Roger Cross. melina knows why. :) My favorite of Jack's earnest protégés.

Hamri Al-Assad
Alexander Siddig is kinda my weak spot. It still breaks my heart that they killed him off so quickly. It's possible that he would have slightly edged out Tony in my affections if he'd stuck around.

Tony Almeida
Then again... yeah, probably not. Tony! ♥

Firefly

Zoe Washburne
Does it even need to be elaborated upon, all the ways in which Zoe is awesome? I'm in the middle of rewatching Firefly right now, and I'm falling in love with her all over again in a big, bad way. Her relationships with Mal and with Wash are both better than pie. I can't say I've been so in love with a Captain and First Officer since Kirk and Spock.

Alias

Anna Espinosa
It's hard to say how much of my love for Anna is thanks to Gina Torres, and how much is because I adore the fact that Sydney had a hot, female archnemesis. They should have done more with that, dammit!

Marcus Dixon
Syd/Dixon is still my favorite pairing. They were such amazing partners, and I never really enjoyed the show as much as when they were a team. The whole storyline about Dixon finding out about Sydney was probably my favorite thing ever on Alias. (Sydney/Dixon rec: Caged Wisdom by Yahtzee.)

Francie Calfo
Oh, Alias season 1! I actually hated what they did with Francie -- she's a character I never wanted anything bad to happen to. But she's still the best BFF ever.

Angel

Charles Gunn
Sigh. I'm kind of a wibbly mess when it comes to Gunn. He always broke my heart, but in season 5, he had this amazing Flowers for Algernon thing happening, which was so genius, and even more heartbreaking. His fall from grace was a low-key part of my favorite Angel season, but that just made it more affecting.

Fringe

Esther Figglesworth
I admit it, I like Astrid? But I love Esther. Esther/Olivia OTP!

Phillip Broyles
Lance Reddick is mesmerizing no matter what he does. He was amazing in the noir episode! I wouldn't mind a lot more of his character on the show. (Also, Broyles/Skinner crossover, anyone? :D)

Battlestar Galactica

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
I have so many problems with BSG, and ultimately, the show didn't work for me -- but they certainly had no shortage of great female characters, and of them all, Boomer was my favorite. I loved Sharon, too, although she never quite seized my heart in the same way that Boomer did. The fact that I think of them as two completely different people says a lot about the strength of the writing when it came to her character, as well as the ability of the actress.

Dead Zone

Bruce Lewis
It was a Bruce episode that made me crazy for this show, and his relationship with Johnny was always the thing that made the show worth it, for me. Unfortunately, I think the show lost interest in him, possibly because his role in the show was not all that vital after Johnny had other friends, and didn't need a physical therapist any more. He was the character who really made me feel how skewed toward white pairings slash fandom tended to be (worse then than now). It wasn't the first time that I felt it, but it kinda stood out. Now, though, I realize that part of it may have been that I wasn't looking in the right places. (A few Johnny/Bruce recs, for old times sake!)

Leverage

Alec Hardison
I'm embarrassed to admit it, but Hardison is the main reason for this show to exist, as far as I'm concerned. And I've watched this vid far too many times. Thank God it's not fattening.

Eyes

Chris Didion
I fell in love with Rick Worthy as Nathan on Magnificent Seven, but the character as written was a disappointment a lot of the time. Then he showed up on Eyes, where he got to play a funny, interesting, bad-ass, gay detective with a past, and anger management issues. There's a great little piece about him on After Elton, here. I should have written about Eyes for "show that should never have been canceled," come to think of it.

Xena

Lao Ma
Xena's version of Rebecca Horne! What's not to love? One of the most beautiful actresses ever on my TV.

Highlander

May-Ling Shen
It was always a joy when they managed to find an actor and create a character who could really carry off the Immortal thing, and May-Ling was one of those. It's a shame she was wasted on what's essentially a clip episode, and also that she died -- if she had lived, I think she would have been an awesome guest character in fanfic. She's also possibly the most bad-ass female Immortal we got. Hmm, who would win? May-Ling, or Ceirdwyn?

The other character I'd give a shout-out to is Sunda Kastagir, but dammit, they never had him on the show. *g*

Miracles

Evelyn Santos
She had me at "bullet permanently lodged in her brain," but that was just the beginning of my ever-growing love for Evie. Her story is one of the many fascinating layers that Miracles barely began to reveal in its short-lived run. Marisa Ramirez is jaw-droppingly beautiful, but mostly what I love about her is her warmth, wisdom, and integrity. Paul and Alva desperately need someone like her, and I love that she knows that, and recognizes the possibility of the weird without losing her sense of the practical. (deejay's gorgeous Evie vid.)

Justified

Rachel Brooks
I need mooooore of her. In Raylan's hat wouldn't bother me a bit. I kinda wish she wasn't too smart to get involved with a guy like him, because HELLO COMPETENCE KINK.

And speaking of competence kink—

White Collar

Diana Lancing
My feelings right now can pretty much be summed up the same as most people's — YAY she's back! ETA: ...and I can't believe Diana/Rachel is only now occurring to me. Because yes, please.

Lauren Cruz
I am kinda sad, though, that it looks like we're losing Cruz? I guess she wasn't that popular, but I really liked her.

Star Trek (various flavors)

B'Elanna Torres
At one time, she was my favorite character on Voyager. *nostalgic* And one of my favorite pairings was B'Elanna/Chakotay. Remember when that used to be a plausible thing?

Chakotay
The fanon version of Chakotay is still one of the most awesome characters ever. This is why we have fanfic, I'm pretty sure.

Guinan
Likewise, the fanon version of Guinan. I still can't believe someone wrote Duncan MacLeod/Guinan. The universe is sometimes a kind and wonderful place. Still, the canon version is still hands-down my favorite character on ST:TNG.

Nyota Uhura
I confess, I have a slight preference for Zoe Saldana's version. Is that sacrilegious? Probably. My favorite Classic Uhura is actually from Star Trek III — although "Sorry, neither," will always make me want to cheer, and if she'd been as awesome in other episodes as she was in "Mirror, Mirror," the world would be a better place.

True Blood

Lafayette Reynolds
Does anyone who watches this show not love him? Really? Because if so, that person is not human.

Tara Thornton and "Eggs" Benedict Talley
I wish I could wholeheartedly love both these characters. I love the actors, and I loved them together. What the show did to them (and continues to do to Tara), I definitely don't love. It's a dilemma.

Witchblade

Danny Woo
Writing about Witchblade for this meme reminded me of how much I adored season 1, and after I finish rewatching Firefly, I'm going to revisit it. Danny, how so awesome? Everybody should have a dead friend like you.

Treme

Ladonna Batiste-Williams
I never expected to love her as much as I do now. She seemed really difficult to like, at first, but now I can't even remember why I thought that. When she pretended to listen to her people in their crypt, and said with such perfect attitude, "Sounds like every motherfucker up in there's spinnin'," I realized that somewhere along the line, I'd fallen completely in love with her.

Supernatural

Victor Henriksen
The killing of characters like Henriksen (never mind the replacement of Missouri Mosely with a hot white girl) is the kind of door-closing that I really hate in my fannish shows. The universe of Supernatural was so much richer with him than without him — as fanfic has proven many times over.

The Wire

We're getting close to the top of my list, now. I could put most of the cast of The Wire on here (Idris Elba!), but I'll keep it to my top three:

Kima Greggs
Kima is one of the most realistic characters I've ever seen on television. Her motivations, her skills and gifts and selfishness and self-doubts, all rang true to me. I love the balance of her strengths and limitations, and the way the show allowed her to grow as a character throughout the story arc. Her relationships with Bubbles and with McNulty were kind of the heart of the show for me.

Preston "Bodie" Broadus
Bodie! ♥ As much as Duquan and Randy and some of the other, more innocent kids broke my heart, I have to admit it was Bodie who became the "hero" of this story for me. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but the charisma of J. D. Williams probably has something to do with it. Then again, looking at my attachment to Derek Reese and Dean Winchester, I probably have a thing for the doomed soldier-types.

Omar Little
I don't even know what to say about Omar. His code, his tenderness with Brandon, his friendship with Butchie, his court outfit, his views on the world — all I know is, I think I cried harder when he died than I ever have for a TV character. And I'll never hear "Farmer in the Dell" without getting a little thrill.

Hustle

Mickey Bricks
Adrian Lester! The thing I love so much about Mickey Bricks is that I absolutely believe that he could con anyone out of anything, because I don't think there's a living creature who could withstand his charisma. I know I can't. Plus, smart. Smarter than you. Whatever you thought was going on? No, you're wrong. Mickey has a plan, and he's thought of everything.

Jeremiah

Theo Coleridge
Kim Hawthorne has so much presence and emotion in her performances, I fell in love with Theo from the first moment she appeared. It still frustrates me that they toned her down so much in season 2, and I get why they did it, but it took away some of the magic. She had a lot of magic to spare, though. "I am just about to emote. Oh! False alarm. Must have been something in my eye!" It doesn't hurt that she has amazing chemistry with everyone — especially Jeremiah and Erin.

Kurdy Malloy
I've been talking about him a lot, lately, haven't I? Guess he's still my favorite. :D I did a whole post about him over here.

And with that, I am done!